BIG BALLS IN COWTOWN - TECH FACES PIVOTAL TEST
The Texas Tech Red Raiders have a stiff test ahead of them this weekend in Cowtown as Tech will open up a three-game series at No. 7 TCU on Friday night. The Horned Frogs are off to a hot start at 9-2 overall and are ranked in the top 10 in three of the four major collegiate baseball polls. Texas Tech and TCU will play all three games of the series at Lupton Stadium on the TCU campus beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The series continues at 2 p.m. on Saturday and will conclude at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Advance tickets can be purchased by logging on to www.gofrogs.com.
RANKINGS
TCU is ranked No. 9 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll, No. 7 by Baseball America, No. 11 by Collegiate Baseball Magazine and No. 8 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers (NCBWA) Top 25 poll. Texas Tech is unranked.
TEXAS TECH SPORTS NETWORK
All 56 regular-season games will be carried live by Learfield Sports on the Texas Tech Sports Network. Red Raiders fans can listen to all the action on Double T 104.3 (the flagship station of the Texas Tech Sports Network) in Lubbock or KHOB 1390 AM in Hobbs, N.M. Fans outside of the above listening areas can tune in via the world wide web at texastech.com and purchase a monthly subscription to RaiderVision All-Access. Robert Giovannetti returns to the broadcast booth for his third season as the play-by-play voice while Daren Hays joins the network as the full-time color analyst.
GAMEDAY CENTRAL
Red Raider fans unable to make it out to the ballpark can follow Texas Tech baseball games anywhere in the world through Gameday Central at texastech.com. Live scoring, audio and video (video only available for home games and select road games), a live game blog and twitter updates can all be found at Gameday Central. Comprehensive parking, weather, tailgating, security and ticket information can also be found in this convenient location.
THE SERIES
Texas Tech and TCU will be meeting for the 139th, 140th and 141st times this weekend with the Horned Frogs holding a slight avantage in the all-time series at 69-68-1. The series against TCU is the third most played in school history.
TEXAS TECH - TCU SERIES NOTES
Texas Tech and TCU have already faced off once this season with the Horned Frogs winning 11-2 in the first game of the 2010 Houston College Classic at Minute Maid Park. Texas Tech allowed 15 hits in that contest and were shuout out over the last eight innings after staking a 2-0 lead in the first.
Texas Tech will be facing TCU in a three-game series in Fort Worth for the first time since the 2003 season. In that series, the Frogs won the first two games by scores of 2-1 and 3-2 before Tech salvaged the finale with a 7-5 victory.
TCU will come to Lubbock in 2011 for a three-game series and it will mark the first appearance for the Frogs at Dan Law Field since 2004. Excluding last week's game at Minute Maid Park, four of the last five games between the Red Raiders and Horned Frogs have been played at TCU.
TCU has won the last three games in the series against Texas Tech.
A LOOK AT TCU
The TCU Horned Frogs, owners of a 9-2 overall record, are ranked in the top 10 in three of the major college baseball polls with a high ranking of No. 7 by Baseball America. TCU won a three-game series at then No. 6 Cal-State Fullerton back in late February and went 2-1 in last week's Houston College Classic with wins over Texas Tech and Missouri.
Offensively, the Frogs are off to a hot start with a .351 batting average and own 49 extra base hits. Josh Elander is one of three Frogs hitting over .400 on the year as he owns a .488 clip along with four doubles and 11 RBIs. Jason Coats (.429 average) is the RBI leader with 14 while Matt Curry paces the team with four home runs.
On the mound, TCU owns a 3.36 earned run average over 96 1/3 innings pitched and is holding opponents to a .234 batting average. Steven Maxwell, Friday's scheduled starter, leads the staff with a 1.59 ERA over 17 innings and is 3-0 on the year.
ASHBY MOVES INTO TOP 10 IN CAREER HITS
With 193 career hits, senior centerfielder Taylor Ashby has moved past Keith Ginter (1997-98), Jimmy Zachry (1980-84) and Ronnie Mattson (1973-76) into ninth place on the school's career hits list. Only 11 hits seperate Ashby from moving past Matt Kastelic (1995-96) into sixth place and he is within striking distance of Roger Kieschnick's (2006-08) total of 222 which ranks fourth. Ashby moved into the top 10 with a single against Gonzaga on March 9 and then moved into ninth place by going 2-for-5 against the Bulldogs on March 10.
Ranks fifth on the career games played list with 175.
Ranks fifth on the career at-bats list with 637.
Ranks ninth on the career doubles list with 37 and is just three away from surpassing Kieschnick for eighth place.
DORAN LEADING TECH PITCHING STAFF
Although still searching for his first win of the 2010 season, junior right-hander Bobby Doran has certainly been Tech's top hurler over the first 12 games of the season. In each of his last three outings, the junior transfer from Seward College has registered a no-decision but has put up some impressve numbers. He is the staff leader with a 3.32 ERA over 19 innings of work and boasts a 16-3 strikeout to walk ratio. Doran has held opponents to a .296 average and allowed just seven runs.
Against Rice on Saturday night, Doran showed his skills to over 9,000 fans in attendance at Minute Maid Park as he dualed Rice left-hander Tony Cingrani. Doran allowed just two runs over seven innings and struckout five batters without issuing a single walk.
REED PROVING TO BE A VALUABLE LEADOFF HITTER
Senior left fielder Michael Reed has been invaluable for the Red Raider offense this season as he leads the squad with a .422 average. That .432 average ranks him 11th in the Big 12 Conference. Reed has hit safely in 11-of-13 games this year and rattled off a career long, eight-game hit streak between Feb. 20 and March 5. In the Houston College Classic, he drove in three runs for the Red Raiders and tallied a .333 batting average. Those numbers secured him a spot on the all-tournament team.
MARCH IS MURDERER'S ROW FOR THE RED RAIDERS
Texas Tech's vicious schedule for the month of March is underway and the Red Raiders got their first dose in the 2010 Houston College Classic where Tech faced No. 7 TCU and No. 9 Rice. Tech will play two, three-game series at TCU and Texas A&M while closing out the month of March with a series at home against Texas. TCU and Texas are both ranked in the top 10 while Texas A&M has spent time in the top 25. Tech will also face stiff midweek challenges against Texas State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
